Isolation and Characterization of Bacteriophages Against Escherichia coli And Shigella dysenteriae and Its Applications

Environment populated by bacterial hosts such as soil, sewage and animal secretions are unique sources of all types of bacteriophages, offering the possibility to isolate them for purposes like therapy, typing, indicators etc. Lytic phages are the possible replacement for antibiotics to treat bacterial infections not responding to conventional antibiotic therapy. This study reports isolation and characterization of bacteriophages isolated from sewage water that effectively control growth of Escherichia coli And Shigella dysenteriae, Isolated phages demonstrated thermal stabilities and were able to survive in neutral and alkaline pH levels. The phage titre value obtained was 11 pfu/ml and 0.1 pfu/ml for 10-1 and 10-2 Dilutions respectively. Isolated phages were found to be effective in biocontrol of various food samples also the isolated phages were partially efficient in preventing biofilm formation. These findings indicate application of phages in medical and food industry.